


Safety Net

by Ironic_Swag7782



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Blood and Injury, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Graphic Description, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Injury Recovery, M/M, Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Muteness, No Spoilers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Shippy Gen, Tags were changed from non graphic violence to graphic, Whump, of course its whump its me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24916966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ironic_Swag7782/pseuds/Ironic_Swag7782
Summary: After an incident up at Ploymus Mountain, Sidon takes to helping Link where he can.AKA I've always wondered who left that Silver Longsword behind Ne'ez Yohma shrine.
Relationships: Link & Prince Sidon, Link/Prince Sidon
Comments: 11
Kudos: 348





	Safety Net

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been playing a LOT of Breath of the Wild, and one thing I've always wondered is 'who puts that Silver Longsword back every time you take it?'. So here's a fic about that thought. Enjoy! As always, tumblr is @ videogabe, twitter is @ strangegaytrees. 
> 
> Also please note I used BRITISH Sign Language (which I'm a little shaky on, I used a guidebook), not American, because I know BSL better than ASL.

During the day, the Zora Domain was never quiet. Between the rain and thundering from Vah Ruta, the shocks he could sometimes hear, far off, on Ploymus Mountain, and the general background noise of the Domain, he felt sometimes he never got a moment of quiet. It, usually, wasn’t a bad thing, necessarily – but, in his (rare, he’ll insist) moments of vulnerability, most of the time, he just wants to be left alone. 

He knows he shares that similarity with Link. But the difference between him and Link was that Link could just… get away, leave, even if only for a short while. He had the whole of Hyrule to slink away and hide in. Very few would recognise him, Hero of Time or not. Sidon has to stay. He always has to stay. 

But today, unlike most days, he has a genuine reason for insomnia; Link, with not even a whisper of a complaint, had scaled Ploymus Mountain, and was currently up there, alone, with a Lynel. He knows how dangerous they were; he dreads the day one of the younger Zora get too close, and bloodshed ensues. There had been close calls before. He can only hope to Hylia that Link makes it out the other end alright. Instead of pacing around his room, he’s found himself stood in the courtyard – in front of Mipha’s statue, like he’s found himself so many times before. The difference, this evening, is the shrine that Link seems to suddenly appear from is right in his eye-line. 

He waits. Most of the night, in fact. And maybe he’s thinking too hard, stressing himself out, but he would swear a million times over he could hear lightning and thunder from atop Ploymus, over the roar of the rain. He needed Link to come back quickly. Even if only for his peace of mind. 

But like every other time before, Link’s teleport to the shrine is as silent and as unassuming as himself – Sidon isn’t even aware he’d returned until he spots movement in the corner of his eye and hears the clattering of something wooden on the ground. The sight that greets him there makes his knees feel weak. 

“Link…?” He gets out, because it’s so fucked up.

The Hylian in front of him has been through the wars, and that’s being generous. He’d been using a tree branch as some kind of crutch, because the leg he’s standing on is fucking ruined. He sees bone. Blood pools on the floor underneath him, splattering too loud on the floor. It stains the Zora Armour he’d been given. 

Just as he’s wondering how Link is still standing (still alive), his eyes slip closed and Sidon rushes to catch him. 

Calling for Bazz, or s0meone, dear Hylia, anyone, is harder than he would’ve thought. Link is so small in his arms, too small to be fighting so hard. Risking his life. Ending up in the bloody state he’s in tonight. Every time he looks down at Link, his throat almost closes up, and he tastes panic on his tongue, but forces it down. 

Link needed him. He needed him now. 

Link would be okay. The words seemed to blur together after too many people spoke to him too close to each other, but he got the gist. Link was alive, barely, but he was alive. His leg was the worst of it, but he’d taken an arrow (an electric one, Bazz had added, reluctantly) to the back, and had obtained a handful of gashes, and grazes from being thrown around, presumably. 

Sidon had to sit down. The image of Link, practically defenceless, being hurled around is almost too much to think about. The healers leave him alone after that, seeming to understand although he doesn’t utter a word. Link sleeps, as Sidon slips into the room they’re keeping him. 

“Sidon, you don’t have to keep watch, the healer is just around the corner.” Someone tells him, a reassuring hand on his shoulder. 

“It’s alright. I can stay.” He says, voice quiet. 

They don’t respond, instead taking their silent leave from the room, shutting the rain out as they close the door behind them. Noises of heavy rain like that sends a flare of anxiety through him normally, the fear of the future of the Zora Domain eating away at him. 

Not tonight though. All that matters tonight is his friend, risking his life to save them. 

“What is it, I wonder, which makes you disregard your own personal safety like this, I wonder.” Sidon says aloud. 

Link does not respond, and Sidon simply sighs quietly, and waits. 

When Sidon wakes again, he’s a little disorientated and it takes him a few confused moments to remember where he is and what happened. An hour has passed, so he doesn’t expect any significant change in Link, so he’s not surprised (grateful, too) when he finds Link still asleep. Peeling back the sheet he’s sleeping under tells him his leg has thankfully stopped bleeding, so Sidon relaxes minutely. 

And he waits some more. 

He’d been asleep a total of six hours, Sidon had counted. He’d been trying to stay awake, and fighting a losing battle, and missed when Link’s eyes cracked open. Admittedly, even if he had been looking, he’s not sure he would’ve seen it. Link doesn’t even seem to recognise anything, simply looking directly up at the ceiling, until Sidon addresses him. 

“Link!” Link’s eyes follow to look at him, glassy and struggling to focus. He only hopes its from sleep and not something else. “Thank goodness you’re alright.” 

Link doesn’t say anything, that ever-present crease between his eyebrows appearing as he looks at Sidon, puzzled. His hands appear from under the sheet, slowly putting the pieces together to sign something – Sidon’s surprised, he’ll admit, he hadn’t expected Link to communicate so quickly after waking. 

He curls a fist around in front of his chest, then turns it in circles twice. Sorry. He was apologising. Link, his leg presumably causing him agony and the incident leaving him fighting for life, was apologising. It made Sidon’s heart hurt. 

“No, no, why are you saying sorry?” Link cringes away from his question. “Sorry. That was a heavy question,” Sidon knows Link won’t quite have the words to explain, so he changes tactics. “It’s not your fault. Lynels are vicious. We shouldn’t have sent you up there in the first place.” 

Link’s shaking his head now, and struggles to sit himself up with a prolonged hiss of pain. Sidon’s hands flutter beside him, praying that he doesn’t re-open any injuries by pushing himself too soon. 

“Your bag?” He realises, following where Link’s pointing. 

The quiver, arrows spilling out across the floor, had been bought in by someone at some point during the night, he realises. As he goes to pick up Link’s belongings, he realises, with a bolt of surprise – 

“They’re here! All twenty!” Sidon says, excited despite himself. “Link, this is incredible! I can’t thank you enough… You risked your life for practically a stranger.” 

Link looks at him them, with an expression of such profound sadness playing out on his face. It’s an expression far too old, far too tired for Link to be wearing. Though, he supposes, it matches him. Link, woken up after one-hundred years, lost, and thrust the fate of their world on him. 

Sidon suddenly has this inexplicable urge to hug him. He doesn’t. Instead he watches Link respond, slowly, his brain connecting sign to words. Pointing at Sidon – you – he runs his hand, vertical, down his face, a dramatized expression of sadness on his face, then swipes his index finger across his shoulder twice, short, quick movements. 

‘Why are you sad?’ 

Sidon feels like crying. This stupid, kind boy, almost bled out in front of him, almost died, and he’s worrying about Sidon? 

“I’m alright. Worried about you, but alright,” Sidon hesitates. “What happened, Link?” 

Link, in fractured signed sentences (and gestures, when he doesn’t know a word), explains that he’d simply run out of weapons. That was it. The Lynel had spotted him, when he’d planned to sneak around it, and he’d not had enough firepower. Sidon’s seen what Link’s like in battle – throwing himself so passionately at the enemy, snapping weapons in a fog of fury. So it doesn’t surprise him. 

“Why didn’t you run?” Sidon eventually gets out, but he thinks he knows the answer. 

‘Didn’t want to bring it here.’ Selfless, was one word that sprung to mind. 

“Ah. Link --”

‘I killed it.’

Now, that was surprising, Sidon thinks. 

“That’s – That’s great. Perhaps we can visit Ploymus Mountain, once…” Sidon doesn’t think about after Ganon is defeated. He doesn’t want to re-open that wound, remind Link of that expectation of him. “And we should figure something out, a back-up plan, in case this happens again. Something to protect you, somehow.” 

Link nods, and Sidon realises quickly how tired he must be. 

“But, first, you should rest. You’re still very injured,” Sidon tries not to mother him, but he just looks so weary in that bed. “We’ll be right here. You needn’t worry.” 

Link nods again, maybe too tired to speak. 

As he falls asleep, Sidon could swear there was perhaps a ghost of a smile on his lips, and vows to do whatever he can to bring his smile back. But first, he had something else to do. 

The silver longsword isn’t anything particularly special, but it’s easily obtained, can do some damage and not so heavy that Link can’t wield it. But it’s something. He places the sword right behind the shrine where Link typically appears, and tries not to hold his breath every time it vanishes, hoping Link has taken it with him. 

It’s quiet, after Vah Ruta is reclaimed, the rain slows down and the thunder stops, but Link’s appearance and eventually, smile, brings the sun into his life.

It’s enough.


End file.
